Today, as GenY and GenZ invade the food courts, armed with a myriad of apps, smartphones and new ideas, dining experiences are transforming.
They aren’t named the foodie generation for nothing – 42% of Millennials are likely to dine at a casual dining restaurant every month. That’s 9% up on Gen X and 18% up on the Baby Boomers, making the under 30s your most loyal diners.
But how will you capture this acronym-speaking group’s fancy and how can this generation affect your cafe/restaurant? Read on…
1. They want wait-less-ness
While some coffees are spur-of-the-moment-i-need-a-coffee purchases, preordering apps are the next big thing in the hospitality industry. For business diners or busy students using your services, you need to feature on restaurant and cafe finders such as skip.com.au and mypreorder.com.au.
Besides, it’s a win-win. With orders coming into your kitchen ahead of crazy hour, your team can plan to efficiently fulfil orders.
2.They are organic conscious
The farm-to-table movement is gaining momentum amongst Millennials with 30% of them eating Certified Organic foods and 80% of them are concerned as to where food is grown. Greater social and health awareness amongst this group means you need to think natural and fresh when catering for millennials.
You can easily tag your menu with symbols that indicate vegan friendly, or organic-grown for easy identification. Otherwise: Be prepared for a few questions regarding the fertilizer used at the farm growing your asparagus.
3…and college trained
Many of this generation are still studying and they bring their dining habits from the campus with them. They love communal tables. Collaboration with colleagues and friends. Think longer, bigger and bench seats.
4. They take photos and lots of them
Your meal doesn’t just feature on the plate, but also on the big wide web. More often than not, millennial diners will photograph and share before they eat.
Visual content is booming on social media, with 55% of GenY using Instagram. With the ability to tag images, your food can very quickly make you famous or ……not-so-famous.
5. They do reviews…. the new fashioned way
40% of Gen Y diners have reviewed a cafe or eatery after visiting, so your cafe is likely to feature on some of the many dedicated review sites such as tripadvisor.com.au and goodfood.com.au.
And with 84% of people trusting online reviews as much as a personal recommendation, it’s more than likely your prospective diners, millennial or not, will be checking them out.
